Freelance Photographer
How do you sum up your work in just six images? If I’m honest I’m not sure I can but here goes (with explanations, of sorts no less!) I’m best known for my sport and Rallycross work, but a large amount of my time is spent shooting editorial and promotional work.
Back in October 2011 I was lucky enough to be part of a creative team that worked on a location video shoot for the amazing Kay Jay and her jointly written, with her then fiancée now husband, Kevin Sutherland. Its name simply ‘Natural High’ drawing on influences from her own past which are abundantly obvious when you hear the track and believe me in two days I heard it a lot!
It was shot on location at an amazing house in Norfolk call Battleford Hall, an old vicarage owned by Kate’s uncle, who the whole crew referred to as ‘Uncle Pete’ who during our time in residence looked after us in what can only be described as VIP treatment. I think I probably owe him a few bottles of wine as we quaffed long into the night on the first day!
So I spent two amazing days lurking around behind the cameras and trying to get enough time to get some decent portraits in between scenes. Here are a few of my favorites:
My absolute favorite without a doubt is this one, album cover material? only time will tell.
Also because I have had to hold this back for nearly 5 months I have also held back the following image never before seen not even by Kate!
Some of the more observant of you might notice this is a rehashed blog. The reason is that Kate has just released the single and heres the final video
In two days I met some great people: Melissa Kassinen simply great make-up and Lukas DiSparrow one of the worlds self confessed wierdos but a great director. Mr Guy Wilson a kindred spirit! Mr Kevin Sutherland and of course not forgetting the lady herself KayJay
Press Photographer Kent. It’s been a very frustrating start to the year. With event after event being cancelled due to the weather. So I’m not going to mention that again! But there have been some nice sunny winter days. A couple of which I was out and about with my camera. Working in the beautiful winter sun.
Early on in January. I was sent to cover the Greek Orthodox Blessing of the Seas ceremony. Which takes place on Margate beach. I had never even heard about this but it made for some really nice frames.
Margate is the setting for a Blessing of the Seas in the Greek Orthodox celebrations at Epiphany (6th January) marking the baptism of Christ. Margate was chosen for the honour in the mid-twentieth century because there is a large community of Greek Cypriot residents in the town. It’s organised by the local Greek Orthodox Church whose Archishop leads the devotions and begins at the church of St Michael the Archangel. After a short service a procession of many dignitaries in full regalia, both religious and civic, follows the piper to Marine Sands & the beach . Doves are released, prayers given and a decorated cross is hurled into the waters to be retrieved by a young diver for the Archbishop.
I’ve also been doing a lot of PR Photography and editorial portraiture work. For various magazines. Along the way. I have met some amazing and brave people.
Charlotte Naylor who was diagnosed with Lupus aged 23 after developing blood clots on her lungs and legs. She had a stroke in 2012 caused by the condition and has memory problems since. Shot for You! Magazine
Quite unsurprisingly sport photography has been a rare experience. Mainly because of the weather. The wettest since the 1700’s apparently! With cancellations and postponements the norm rather than the exception:
Guy Hilton (10) on the break with Hooker Mark Livesey (1) in support. Canterbury Rugby Club Merton Lane Nackington Road. Canterbury v Taunton Titans in National 2 South.
I have also been out scouting locations for some upcoming personal projects. On one such day I was checking out Dover’s Western Heights. I took this panoramic of Dover looking back over Farthinghoe and Maxton.
Looking through my catalog for 2013 which numbers around 50,000 images all edited! This year I really tried to be harsher and keep less! So what I have decided to do is to select just one image from every month and try and convey the impossible variety of work I do! So here goes. One image from each month, with not much comment…
Spent a bit of time this year shooting Premiership football for the guys at SportPix
Jussi Jaaskelainen (22) saves an Arsenal attempt
I shot less celebrity stuff this year. However I am still a bit undecided how much I’ll do in 2014.
Stars Denise Van Outen and Sarah Harding. Run For Your Wife Film Premier. Odeon Leicester Square,
This years motorsport season was the best yet. It was a conscious effort to focus a little more. The track days are still awesome fun and I’m looking forward to continuing a great relationship in 2014 as the official photographer at Lydden Hill where Willie Woods and his team are really making a gigantic difference.
Lydden Hill | BMCRC Sidecar Testing | 9th March 2013
IMG started running the FIA European Rallycross Championship with a restructure to the FIA Rallycross RX and wow! what a difference! Here’s possibly one of my favorite motorsport frames this year. I not only cover the European and British Rallycross Championships doing team media for a lot of drivers but also for www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk. Still at time of writing this I am trying to sort out plans to cover the newly announced World Rallycross Championship. Fingers crossed.
Kevin Errikson at 2013 FIA European Rallycross Championship, Round 1 Rallycross of Great Britain, presented by Monster Energy.
I probably shot more gigs this year than before. The head and shoulders most successful frame over everything else I shot is this one of Justin Young, lead singer of The Vaccines. Corbis keep sending me money for this frame, not sure where its being used, but long may it last!
Justin Young. The Vaccines play Margate Winter Gardens, Kent. 01/05/2013
Did a few Royal duties this year as well. Even to the point that prince Andrew tried to run me down in a golf cart!
Her Majesty The Queen visiting The Argyll & Sutherlander Highlanders, 5th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, (5 SCOTS) at Howe Barracks, Canterbury on Friday 28th June.
Holiday for the first time in years 🙂
Every so often I get to go and take pictures of my photographic heroes. I was lucky enough to do an editorial portrait shoot of John Cross who’s legendary images of Koo Stark are well known.
Photographer John Cross, who is exhibiting his work at the Golf Road Centre.
One of the few premiers did this year was ‘Diana’ unwittingly capturing David Emanuel as ‘another’ where in a couple of months after this he would be the toast of the UK down to his involvement in I’m a Celebrity!
David Emanuel. World Premier of Diana. Odean, London.
Did a wedding for a mate, was a great day more here
NovemberI shot a ton of sport this year. One of my favorite events was the ATP Finals for obvious reasons.
Barclays ATP World Finals. Group B singles match between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. Roger Federer returns the ball.
This year more then any other I have shoot more regional press and editorial work. Its something I love more than anything else. Don’t get me wrong covering big high profile events or shooting celebrities is great but meeting everyday people who are doing ordinary things but also sometimes some extra-ordinary things is very, very rewarding. By the way I probably have shots of 50+ Santa’s from this year!
Herne Bay town centre, Mortimer Street. Christmas showcase market stalls during day & light switch on.
So that in a very, very small 12 picture nutshell was my year.
New year is a time to reflect and make resolutions. I think if its all the same to you I’ll just keep doing what I do!
However there’s a couple of things I’d like to do more of in 2014 the first just requires me to get out of bed and that shoot more landscapes! The second is that I have realized I haven’t worked with any models during 2013 and that’s something I’d like to do more of in 2014, so if you want to collaborate get in touch!
Happy New year to all friends and clients both new and old here’s to an awesome 2014.
A very good question and one I must admit I struggled to answer when it was put to me the other day. My immediate reaction was to say its to promote something, be that an individual or a company. But that’s just a bit woolly and not very concise. It could also refer to commercial photography, product photography or even advertising photography.
My own opinion I think its a hybrid between press photography and editorial photography. Normally there are pretty tight time constraints on delivering a set of images and more often than not the images do appear in the press so lots of similarities there then. On the other hand you normally get to be a bit more creative and you certainly get more time to actually do the shoot. But really its just the ability to be able to answer a brief by creating great images.
The following three images are all press work all shot for and used by a newspaper.
The next three are all PR shots. Notice any difference? no? then I rest my case.
Its not always about people either a new restaurant or supermarket opening some of the best images are of the detail.
So how should you actually choose the right PR Photographer for your job? Ask as many questions as you can. For example do they shoot much PR?
Experience doesn’t always account for everything but an experienced PR Photographer will instinctively make sure that any branding is prominent in every shot. They will know what editors or designers like to see.
But do you agree with me? I’d like to hear what you might think.
Last weekend alone I filed about twenty plus pictures of different Santas! from the weird to the wonderful!
Santa flies KLM its official I have seen it at Manston Airport!
All the Bah Humbug aside now. It really is a busy time of year. Which has seen me traveling far and wide. This year I’m determined to make some different images not just the run of the mill ones you see all the time, well that’s the plan. We shall see!
I got to cover the grand Christmas lights turn on in Dover this year by the cast of the Panto at the Marlowe Theater in Canterbury. Samantha Womack better known for playing Ronnie in Eastenders. Is one of the main celeb pulls. I personally remember and prefer her from Game On!
Phil Gallagher. better known as C Beebies ‘Mr Maker’ as well. I had shot him before a couple of days earlier. So I had already met him. A really nice guy who has the misfortune to support the Gills!
I have also been thrown some tough jobs lately not least shooting in dimly lit churches with varying results. Given more time the sceanareo screams for an Off Camera Flash setup, but when your rushing from job to job that’s just not possible.
With my Rubber Duck Does Automotive hat on. I have started shooting for the American car magazine European Car. My first job was shooting a feature of the simply awesome Ford Focus RS 500 ‘Optimus’ that belongs to the guys at RS Direct down in Bristol.
Unfortunately until they are published this is all I can let you see for now. Needless to say awesome car (I’m a real sucker for RS’s!) in an exceptionally cool location. Makes for some really great images and will deserve its own post in the future!
I’d also had the pleasure of getting some really great customer service this week. Which I’d just like to take a minute to tell you about. My external flash battery pack suddenly decided that it was no longer going to charge, not really the end of the world but I use mine on a daily basis as its quicker to charge than a load of AA Batteries! I duly contacted John at UK Photo Distro about it. I had only bought it back in the summer but I hadn’t spent a fortune on it so I wasn’t expecting much. However within about 5 minutes of sending the email he called me to reassure me that he was sending out a replacement. So I urge you to go and take a look at their website if your looking for any kind of accessory.
So I thought it would be a good idea to design and publish a book that covered this years British Rallycross championship. After a few conversations with motorsport journalist extraordinaire, and good mate, Hal Ridge. He finally succumbed to my nagging and conceded to do the words for the book.
Right from when I had conceived the idea I had wanted to include an image of every regular driver in every class, which basically resulted in over 90 pages of images and a few hundred images for Hal to caption and write about!
We also wanted the book to be of a decent quality that people, divers and rallycross fans would want to keep. I hate to use the term but a coffee table book! So we decided that a 10×8 hardback book with a wrap was the way forward. For this we decided to use the well known website Blurb for the fulfillment.
So after literally 100’s of texts and emails here’s the end product. There’s also an ebook version which is available at https://store.blurb.co.uk/ebooks/p6648271f40f254b7505e
Here’s a preview of the book
We would welcome any comments that people have and also would like to hear any suggestions that you may have that would make it better. We are thinking about doing a give away so let us know what you think.
Firstly let me clear a couple of things up! I haven’t taken leave of my senses.
Here’s what happened. About a year ago I met up with a good mate Neil. Whom hadn’t seen for a while and over the first pint he calmly announces that he was getting hitched. So I felt it my solemn duty to celebrate with him. However after quite a few more celebratory ‘sherries’ the conversation went a bit like this:
Neil: So Matt, we are doing this on a budget can you bring your camera and take a few snaps
Me: erm OK, but you do know I mostly shoot press and sport stuff?
Neil: yeah we only want you to do a few little bits
And that was that I was to shoot my first wedding! As it transpired all that they wanted me to do was to take a couple of nice portraits. Which suited me perfectly. I remember a conversation I had with with Kevin O’Connor of the London Photographic Association (terrible name drop there!) a few years ago about shooting a wedding by only doing portraits! well here was my chance to try just that.
So it was off to Kingscote Barn near Tetbury in the Cotswolds for the wedding and the beautiful and unpredictable British weather, of all the weekends in an unseasonably warm and dry October it decided it was going to rain!
I couldn’t resist the classic first dance silhouette shot. One camera, one light set up.
Here’s a quick selection of a few of the rest. Well I couldn’t resist taking a few extra ones during the day. I also made the decision to shoot all this lot in black and white as I hadn’t shot any B&W in a while and also the light temperature was very strange at the venue!
Would I shoot a whole wedding if asked? possibly but it would have to be along the same lines as this one!
Congratulations Mr and Mrs Bodsworth it was a fantastic day.
So at the beginning of November I was covering the ATP World Finals at the O2. I have not covered top level tennis before so I was looking forward to it. First game was a Group B singles match between Argentinian Juan Martin Del Portro and Frenchman Richard Gasquet.
Barclays ATP World Finals- Juan Martin Del Portro serves
Barclays ATP World Finals- Richard Gasquet
Juan Martin Del Portro come out winner in three sets. The following day I had another Group B match this time between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. At this point I want to point out that the Swiss are fanatical supporters of tennis. Not surprising as they had two players at the ATP World Finals Stanislas Wawrinka and of course Roger Federer.
With the strong support of the crowd Roger Federer was the clear crowd favorite. Which lifted him to pull back the second set by winning a tie break.
Barclays ATP World Finals – Roger Federer focused and driven
Barclays ATP World Finals – Roger Federer in between games
However, it was the tanasity and sheer athleticism of Novak Djokovic that won the day. It was clear he was the man to beat and indeed he went on to win the final and lift the trophy.
Barclays ATP World Finals – Novak Djokovic makes a dramatic return
Barclays ATP World Finals – Novak Djokovic drops a shot just over the net.
Barclays ATP World Finals – Novak Djokovic victorious
My third match was the deciding match in Group A between Rafael Nadal and Stanislas Wawrinka. Where Rafael Nadal would win in just two sets but both were taken to a tie break.
Barclays ATP World Finals 2013 – Stanislas Wawrinka
Barclays ATP World Finals 2013 – Stanislas Wawrinka takes a break
Stanislas Wawrinka’s personalised shoes
Barclays ATP World Finals 2013 – Rafael Nadal an extreme athelete
Rafael Nadal wins the match and finishes the season as world number 1
For the full results of every match go and have a look at https://www.barclaysatpworldtourfinals.com
Justin Young shot here on stage at Margate Winter Gardens way back in May of this year.
I have been lucky enough to cover them playing live twice now. The vigor and energy that they put into a show was surprising both times, and I think this shot of lead singer Justin Young demonstrates that. Although you might not think so, I’d be interested in hearing what you think.
Possibly a while before we see The Vaccines play live again as they have just announced that they are to take a break. I recently found out that Corbis has licensed this image for useage, for what they wont tell me! So if you see it used anywhere drop me a line as it would be nice to know!